I've made both the paraffin/wax candles and the gel candles. Both are easy to make, but I've never had good luck using cotton string as a wick, I buy regular wicks. The gel candles seem to give off a lot more soot so I don't prefer those anymore.

As a glass man, I have to say to make sure the glass can handle direct flame........many will break and some will expode. We have forgone the whole candle concept( soot and fire hazard) and went to LED. My DW likes candles, so she gets tea candles for $1 a dozen( at DG) and then we drop them into approved candle sconces.

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I used to make candles...how do you keep them from sinking down in the middle?

i commonly have that problem..... If it doesn't sink too much, i'll poke a little hole in the cooling wax and just "top it off' with some more to make it level.....

Also, i've been saving the left over bits of old candles... i melt them in a double burner, pick out the old wicks and any debris floating around, and pour the wax into the molds.... Seems to work... Those candles won't be winning any beauty contests thought -- some of them are downright ugly.... They work, but they just don't look pretty......

You can go to almost any craft store and buy wax. For hand dipped tapers the best way to go is about 40/60 bees wax to parafin for smokeless burning. The best wicks to use are cotton without the metal insert in the wicking.

If you are going to make candles in a jar, be sure to use a bit of additive to help soften the wax somewhat, better results in a jar. I also use the 40/60 method for anything in a jar that I'm making and don't have to add anything else.

I use a couple of old coffee cans that my husband put a bend in at the rim for pouring, and a couple of old household pans with water in them. Set the coffee cans inside the pans filled with water, melt the wax over boiling water, pour and you're done. A hint, when you're drying the wax you'll get a little dip in the wax near the wick. Poke this once in a while with a chopstick or whatever as it's drying and you'll keep out air bubbles and cave ins, then you can top off with a little more wax at the end and it will dry and be nice and even on top.

The chain craft stores are a huge ripoff. Paraffin is $30 for 10 lbs. there. On Ebay, with shipping, it's $21. I remember when the 1 lb packages at the store were $1. Now they are $2.50. Is this because paraffin is a waste product of oil production?

Iceman,
If you melt all the colors together it will work, but it will be ugly as sin. Instead, I melt one color at a time, pour it into the mold, let sit for 4 hours, then melt another color and add to my mold until the mold is full. That way my candles come out stripey.

Before you begin melting wax, make sure a working fire extinguisher is within easy reach. I'm really not trying to frighten you, but I want to give you a realistic outlook on the potential dangers of melting wax.

Wax is not like chicken soup. You don't put it on the stove and walk away from it. You never leave melting wax unattended -- ever. Let me clue you in on one aspect of melting wax right away. The time it takes for the wax to melt from its original solid state seems as if it takes forever.

But once you get that wax to start the melting process, it begins to liquefy, the temperature rises quickly -- very quickly. It's just a safety tip head ups!

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I would like to add something to craftmaster's post. I have heard that wax can become superheated very easily. This means that it is above its boiling point, but it does not have something to form a bubble upon (usually an imperfection in the bottom of side of the vessel). Which means that when you move it, or put a spoon in it, it instantly, all of it, begins to boil. So please, watch out. And please protect yourselves. I do not want anyone to be burned by wax. It is very horrible. When you wipe it off, it takes your skin with it.

Nope. It takes an inordinate amount of bees wax to make one small candle. You would likely need 100+ hives to get enough candle wax for half a lighting season. Course people will likely be going earlier also.